


Airbrushed

by Raine_Wynd



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: 600 words exactly, Drive suit scars, Gen, Inspired By Tumblr, Post-Pitfall, Scars, media
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-03
Updated: 2014-09-03
Packaged: 2018-02-16 01:16:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2250438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raine_Wynd/pseuds/Raine_Wynd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The June issue of <i>Vanity Fair</i> features our heroes in summer clothing, but there's a problem.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Airbrushed

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Jocelyn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jocelyn/gifts), [SecondStarOnTheLeft](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SecondStarOnTheLeft/gifts).



> Inspired by a post by SecondStarOnTheLeft, which said, "Sometimes I think about Mako and Raleigh doing glossy magazine interviews and associated photoshoots and Mako getting mad when they airbrush out Raleigh’s scars." Encouragement from Jocelyn. Thanks for the inspiration!
> 
> Edited slightly from the Tumblr posting so it was more in character.

The photography session with _Vanity Fair_ magazine went well as did the post-Pitfall interview, and as it happens in a week full of similar press, neither Mako nor Raleigh think twice about it. For _Vanity Fair_ , they modeled summer casual clothing that’s supposed to represent what they wear in their downtime (it’s too put-together for Raleigh’s taste and too frilly for Mako’s), and everybody’s seen their scars. Mako wears hers as a mark of honor; Raleigh, less so, but she understands. To her, they’re proof they’re jaeger pilots, worthy of the title. Raleigh sees his as nothing glorious – a hazard of doing the things he did. Her drive suit patterned her right shoulder all the way down to her knee. Raleigh now sports drive suit scars on both sides of his body. 

They’re shocked, then, when the PPDC’s PR rep, accompanied by Herc, brings copies of the _Vanity Fair_ issue to them, along with the proofs they’d approved for printing. Someone’s retouched every photograph so that their scars are not as significant as they actually are. One photo has Raleigh’s scars completely gone; another has Mako’s airbrushed out of existence. Others have either parts of their scars showing or, in Raleigh’s case, only the more faded scars on his right side showing. It’s sloppy and inconsistent, and it’s clear that where the art editor thought the newer scars detracted from the clothing, they were airbrushed out.

“Did you approve this?” Raleigh asks Herc warily once the proofs and the magazine are laid out on the mess hall table for comparison.

“No,” Herc says, shaking his head. “I wouldn't, and I’m just as shocked as you are.”

“This is against PPDC policy,” the representative, a Thai woman named Isra, adds. “We’ve always required that any photographs of the jaeger pilots be left alone, no retouching.”

“This isn’t right,” Raleigh says angrily, stabbing at the offending photographs with his hand, before looking at Herc and Isra. “They are not offensive tattoos. They’re scars.”

“We earned those,” Mako adds, sounding as upset as her copilot, and looks at Isra. “Is there any way we can protest this? Maybe take our own photos and post them on social media?”

Isra smiles and turns to Herc, who clears his throat. “We don’t want this to get out of control.”

“You know they won’t stop,” Raleigh reminds him. “I remember seeing the ones you and Scott did where they airbrushed the tats on your arms out of the photos. You did the same thing then – posted photos of you and Scott that showed what you had.”

“We wouldn’t have to show any more skin than what they did in those photos,” Mako says. “Unless we wanted to.”

“Tank tops and shorts,” Isra says firmly. “Let’s not give people better opportunities to paint you naked or –”

“Match our bodies with porn stars?” Raleigh asks lightly, but Mako hears the ‘it’s happened to me’ he doesn’t say.

“Agreed,” Herc says with finality. “Change and meet us in the jaeger bay in fifteen minutes.”

The photos are taken, reviewed, and then posted to the PPDC’s official social media accounts. The accompanying message is simple: “In case anyone is wondering what our drive suit scars look like in summer clothing, this is what they are without being airbrushed like they are in _Vanity Fair_.”

Within minutes, the magazine issues a statement saying that the photos were Photoshopped without the PPDC’s or the head editor’s permission, and essentially denies it had anything to do with the decision. Nobody believes it, of course, but public sentiment is squarely on the PPDC’s side. 

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Touch Up](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2271261) by [kuro49](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuro49/pseuds/kuro49)




End file.
